Member-only story
Look at the above. Compensation is about 4x the value of “relationship with co-workers.” I would say that kinda blows a hole in the long-held, but slowly-eroding “work is family” narrative. On the narrative, by the by: the real tea is that “work” is only equated to “family” by some because they literally have nothing else to focus on. They might have their own family (ideally they do), but that family might have long since changed its dynamism (kids, responsibilities, inflation, lack of sex, no real conversations, no date nights, etc.), and a lot of people (especially men) love their work fiefdom. If those types of guys get to a certain level, they spend a lot of their time with their peers — other guys, middle-aged, often white, who make money, who have wives that look similar, who have kids at similar schools, who belong to the same clubs, etc. As a result, they come to believe “work” is “family,” because for them, it’s probably better than family in some respects.
For most peons in a company, work is not family — and maybe the polar opposite. And the whole discussion is ridiculously stupid to begin with: Do families do performance reviews? Some do. Those families end up on Dateline.
A more rational, nuanced approach to “what work really is” might be this, from Stowe Boyd’s newsletter yesterday:
Is it possible to…
